Tying and fishing the Carp Fritz fly

My approach to fly tying is quite simple, the fly must be attractive to the fish that I am targeting and it needs to be quick and easy to tie. This is not set in stone but as a general rule, it works for me. I have spent the last 2 decades researching and putting into practice the fly and techniques outlined here.

 

Carp can be a very difficult and challenging species to target successfully on fly. They are very smart, have excellent olfactory abilities and their eye sight is also good. I love watching carp body language. once a carp is spooked or uneasy, it will not take a fly. To see a carp swim up to your fly and then stop dead, back up and then flee the area is a sight to behold. I have not seen any other fish behave in this manner. Other carp will swim up to the fly, inspect it at length and then swim to the side underneath vegetation and slowly melt away. Once you do manage to trick one, the sense of achievement is quite unbelievable.

Many years ago I designed a fly that worked exceptionally well for them called the carp bugger. I tied the fly on very strong # 10 or 8 medium shank hooks. The tail was red marabou the body was black rough wool with a gold or silver rib and I used a black cock hackle as a collar.

At the time brass fly tying beads where too expensive for me, so I used bath chain eyes instead to provide weight to get the fly to the bottom quickly. This also flipped the fly over so that the

hook point faced up resulting in less fly losses. the hook up ratio with the hook point facing up was also very good because the top lip is firmer than the bottom lip.

I caught hundreds of carp on the pattern but its major downside was the time that it took to tie. 

Carp are attracted to the red and black combination. I think this has something to do with the fact that a large portion of their diet is composed of midge larvae, or bloodworm. They use their large rubbery lips and sensitive barbules to root the larvae out of the sand or mud. These blood worm are a dark red colour and the tail of the carp fritz mimics this. They also like white or yellow or black and yellow. I have had limited success on carp with purple, brown and olive. Orange is another colour that can work well on occasion, but for me the black and red combination works 85% of the time.

A bit later on I discovered fritz chenille and started tying the same pattern substituting the wool body, rib and hackle for large black fritz. The pattern was an instant hit with the carp and it has been my go to

fly for stalking carp ever since. It also works very well for other species like yellowfish, blue gill, mullet, dassie, moonies etc.... The ability to tie up a carp fly in seconds is a huge bonus and the wider fritz chenille helps to push water as the pattern sinks thus alerting the carp to its whereabouts even in very muddy water.

I tie some with bath chain eyes, some with 4mm brass eyes and a few with 4mm tungsten eyes for heavy currents or deeper water. The trick with any carp stalking fly is that it needs to reach the bottom, where the carp is feeding as quickly as possible, before the fish moves on. The fly has to be presented as close to a feeding fish without spooking it. this is the challenge of stalking this species on fly. I often use a small indicator made of yarn or floating putty set a little deeper than the water that I am fishing in order to indicate a take. If the indicator twitches, I strike (set the hook). If you are unsure if it is a fish then you can do a strip strike. This is enough to set the hook and if the fish has already ejected the fly or merely bumped into the line, you can let the fly sink again and have a second chance. I usually let the fly lie on the bottom for about 20 seconds before retrieving and casting over feeding bubbles again. If I can see the carp and my fly then I can judge whether the fly is in the right zone or not and whether or not I have to recast. 

Sight fishing for feeding carp is the most successful way to catch this species, but you don't have to physically see the fish, you can spot the tell tale bubbles that they leave as they hoover up food items in the detritus and then place a fly on these. As long as they are feeding in fairly shallow water (from 40cm to 1.2 meters deep), your fly has a very good chance of landing right on top of where the carp is actually feeding. I like to use a larger indicator like orange egg yarn for this. I once again cast past the bubbles and then draw the fly back quickly and try to let it sink on the bubbles. If the indicator twitches once or twice or shoots under the water, set the hook. Simple but deadly. That sense of the unknown heightens the apprehension of the take when casting over feeding bubbles. Is the carp 3kg or 15kg???? I like to use a powerful 6 weight fly rod, floating fly line and at least 100meters of backing. 

My leader is very simply 1 meter of .45mm Maxima ultra green tied too 30cm of .35mm Maxima. I tie a loop in this last piece of line and attach 1 to 2 meters of .25mm Maxima ultra green onto this loop depending on how deep the water is. There are many makes of specialist fly tippet out there and you can obviously use your own favourite brand, just be sure that it is abrasion resistant. That is why I use Maxima these days, it is tough as nails.... I also like the fact that it is not too limp and not too stiff. You can also boil the leaser if you want to use thinner diameters but for .25mm 3.5 kg tipper, it is unnecessary. When I am fishing close to snags then I will up the breaking strain to .30mm Maxima. Sometimes you will foul hook a carp, especially if there are a lot feeding in the same area. These usually come off leaving a tell tale scale behind on your fly. If you hook one accidentally in the tail, well let's just say the definition of stalemate in the Dictionary comes to mind....

I like to use a large folding net with a soft mesh and long handle in order to land the carp quicker.

Because you stalk carp in snaggy situations and with the fly constantly reaching and lying on the bottom, fly losses can be quite heavy, which is why the carp fritz needs to be simple and quick to tie.

The hook needs to be very sharp in order to penetrate and hold in the carps rubbery mouth. You often have only a split second to set the hook before a carp spits out your fly, hence the need for ultra sharp hook points. I always de barb my hooks. This helps them to go in quicker and they do less damage to the fishes' lips. The hook also needs to be very strong because these fish grow large and can be exceptionally powerful. Depending on the water you fish, you could be connected to carp from 5 to 10kg and sometimes larger. I like to off-set the hook point to the left or right in order to aid rapid penetration when the carp sucks the fly in. This little trick can make a huge difference to your success rate.

Recipe-

Hook-very strong #8 medium shank (I love the Grip 12003 or the new Grip 21711-nsl)

Thread-black 6/0

Bead-4mm gold or tungsten bead or bath chain.

Body-black estaz, ice chenille or crystal chenille (I like the body to be quite bulky so I often to use medium or large chenille)

Tail-red marabou (same length as the hook shank)

Check out my E book or DVDs on fly fishing for carp at seanmillsflyfishing.weebly.com

E Book: "The Extreme Guide To Fly Fishing For Carp"

Sean Mills was one of the pioneers of fly fishing for carp in the 1990's and has over 2500 to his credit. He has been writing on the subject for more than 2 decades. This E book is 120 pages and contains 24000 words, is populated with full colour photographs and illustrations covering 20 years of carp fly fishing research. This E-book contains chapters on the carp varieties, tackle, leaders, knots, how to stalk carp, bubble bashing, subsurface and surface flies, night fishing tactics, fly tying etc. It is "the" reference on fly fishing for these large and powerful fish.

Available in PDF format.



Available now for only R 95